Well, they say that “timing is everything” and based on what has just taken place in the past 24 hours they might be right.
Today, a federal judge today overturned the Trump administration’s renewal of the Hammond Ranches’ livestock-grazing permit finding that then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s decision to renew the permit “was arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, not rationally connected to the facts before the agency, inconsistent with the governing statutes and regulations, and an unexplained change in agency practice and procedure.” Gee, imagine that!
You may recall that the BLM had revoked the Hammonds Ranches’ grazing privileges in 2014 after Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson on federal lands in 2012. In January 2019, on his last day in office, Zinke abruptly overruled the BLM and renewed the permit.
If that doesn’t ring a bell about the Hammonds, you may remember that the Hammond’s were also the “inspiration” for the 41 day-long armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016 by Cliven and Ammon Bundy, who are also still illegally grazing their cows on our public lands and who still owe the American taxpayers over $1 million in unpaid pubic lands grazing fees.
And since “timing is everything” an explosive investigation was just released accusing Washington State GOP House Rep Matt Shea with engaging in “domestic terrorism” for his role in playing the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
According to numerous media accounts:
State Rep. Matt Shea planned and participated in domestic terrorism against the United States before and during the armed takeover at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, an investigation commissioned by the Washington state House found.
The 108-page report found that beginning in November 2015, Shea, working with militia leader Ammon Bundy, helped “in the planning and preparation” of the Malheur takeover, a six-week conflict in which dozens of armed protesters occupied the refuge in rural Eastern Oregon. The standoff ended after one protester was shot and killed and dozens were arrested.
“Representative Shea, as a leader in the Patriot Movement, planned, engaged in and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence against the United States Government in three states outside the state of Washington over a three-year period,” according to the report released Thursday. “In one conflict Representative Shea led covert strategic pre-planning in advance of the conflict.”
Ironically, you may recall that last year when he was Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke blamed wildfires in California on “environmental terrorists groups.” Perhaps Zinke was thinking of Rep Matt Shea and Dwight and Steven Hammond when he made that comment.
Anyway, what interesting timing. Below is the press release from the conservation groups who held Zinke and the Trump Administration accountable.
Court Rejects Trump Administration Renewal of Oregon Ranchers’ Grazing Permit
PORTLAND, Ore.— A federal judge today overturned the Trump administration’s renewal of the Hammond Ranches’ livestock-grazing permit. The ruling throws out the ranchers’ permit on four allotments in eastern Oregon until the Bureau of Land Management does a proper environmental analysis.
Because of Hammond Ranches’ pattern of violating federal rules and the terms of its permit that disqualified it from renewal, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon found that then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s decision to renew the permit “was arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, not rationally connected to the facts before the agency, inconsistent with the governing statutes and regulations, and an unexplained change in agency practice and procedure.”
Today’s ruling suspends future grazing on these allotments until the BLM can comply with federal law and regulations and engage the public in any new decision to allow grazing to resume.
“When ranchers break the law and abuse public lands, they should lose their grazing permit every time,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project. “Restoring grazing leases to ranchers who violate the terms and conditions of their leases encourages the livestock industry to continue abusing public lands and degrading habitat for native fish and wildlife, and fans the flames of extremism, the likes of which resulted in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge debacle.”
The BLM revoked the Hammonds Ranches’ grazing privileges in 2014 after Dwight and Steven Hammond were convicted of arson on federal lands in 2012. In January 2019, on his last day in office, Zinke abruptly overruled the BLM and renewed the permit.
The BLM grazing regulations require that permittees have a “satisfactory record of performance.” Judge Simon concluded that the Hammonds were disqualified not just because of the arson convictions, but also due to their conduct surrounding other fires they were accused of setting and that Zinke ignored this in his decision. The Hammonds also were accused of making death threats against federal officials, according to news reports.
“This ruling confirms that federal grazing permits are a privilege, not a right,” said Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The BLM is charged with protecting wildlife on public lands, not facilitating political favors. Thankfully the judge understands that fragile populations of birds, fish and other animals will be harmed if livestock run rampant in this beautiful place.”
The allotments lie on Steens Mountain, a special, congressionally protected landscape that’s critically important for greater sage grouse. But the birds’ population there has declined by 50% in just the past decade. Grazing has hastened that decline by trampling the birds’ habitat, damaging wet areas they depend on for food, and eating grasses that the sage grouse rely on to hide from predators.
“This decision will finally force the BLM to honestly disclose the serious environmental harm grazing causes and, with comment from the public, put restrictions to protect sage-grouse and other native species into any new permit,” said Judi Brawer, Wild Places program director with WildEarth Guardians.
Western Watersheds Project, the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians filed the lawsuit in May to challenge renewal of the Hammonds’ grazing permits. In July the judge ruled that livestock grazing could not be justified as a way to reduce wildfire risk and that grazing at permitted levels was likely to cause harm to sage grouse and rare redband trout. The judge granted a partial injunction that reduced or blocked livestock grazing on two of the four grazing allotments.
All good things.
Besides the absurdity of Malheur… at some point, the ranching side needs to accept that getting public lands for next to nothing for grazing does not 1) give the right to kill wolves or other predators, or 2) make you a rugged independent figure.
Washington Legislature Report a Strong First Step in Ending Domestic Terrorism
Source (and for all the embedded links contained in the article): https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/12/27/washington-legislature-report-a-strong-first-step-in-ending-domestic-terrorism/
Last week, the Republican Party of Washington unveiled a detailed investigation finding that state legislator Matt Shea (R-Spokane) “participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States” in aiding and abetting the Bundy militants in their takeover of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. In response, Republican House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox called for Shea’s resignation, and Rep. Shea was expelled from the Republican caucus.
According to the report, Shea was also was an active participant in the 2014 Bunkerville incident in Nevada and a 2015 armed insurrection in Priest River, Idaho. The report states,
As shocking as this is, Shea is only one of many local and state politicians linked with the Bundy movement and its armed efforts to take possession of federal lands. Idaho Rep. Heather Scott was also named in the report for planning, engaging in, or supporting three separate armed conflicts within the United States. And, according to media reports, former Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore has been an outspoken proponent of the Bundys, and traveled to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016 to support the militants. Phil Lyman, now a Utah legislator, was jailed for his role in leading an illegal off-road-vehicle ride in 2014 through the sensitive cliff dwellings of Recapture Canyon while he was a San Juan County Commissioner. State representative Bob Thorpe of Arizona was one of five Republican legislators who organized a caravan in 2014 to support the armed insurgents at Bunkerville.
The domestic terrorism report names names and lists particulars; named political leaders should be subjected to criminal investigation to determine whether they violated any laws.
The anti-government sentiment is also alive and well in Washington, D.C. The interim director of the BLM, William Perry Pendley, wrote an op-ed instructing federal law enforcement, “[L]ocal law enforcement bears primary responsibility for enforcing state and federal law,” and federal law enforcement officers “are there to assist” while ‘[m]aintaining that deference” to local officials on public lands. It’s an upside-down worldview, but it specifically implements the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, whose Statement of Positions explicitly directs, “County Sheriffs…should take their rightful position and use their authority to assist in the transfer of control of the [federal] land, and prosecution of violation of citizens’ rights by federal authorities.”
The Constitutional Sheriffs too have been linked to the Bundys’ occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and one of their members, Sheriff Glenn Palmer of Grant County, Oregon, reportedly sided with the armed militants during the Wildlife Refuge takeover.
In response to Pendley’s remarks, conservationists and the outdoor industry have begun to call for Pendley’s ouster.
Meanwhile, back to Representative Shea: the new report states that Rep. Shea actively participated in the 2014 armed standoff at Bunkerville, Nevada, wherein Cliven Bundy’s family called in militia support to prevent federal officers from rounding up his long-trespassing cattle and racking up $1.3 million in unpaid fines and rent while degrading fragile habitats for the rare desert tortoise. Federal courts ruled in 2013 that this grazing is illegal, have rejected the claim that the federal government cannot own public lands as baseless, and have ordered the Bundys’ cattle off. Federal circuit court precedent states that “No individuals have a right to graze livestock on the federal land at issue without authorization from the United States” and “[a]nyone who enters or uses federal land [for livestock grazing] without authorization is in violation of federal statutes and regulations, and is a trespasser.” State courts subsequently dismissed claims that the federal lands the Bundys had grown accustomed to using were actually state property. Where are the federal prosecutors, to bring contempt of court charges for the Bundys’ ongoing livestock trespass? Where are the federal marshals, to march the Bundys off to court?
The report finds that Rep. Shea helped plan the stockpiling of arms and munitions and making arrangements for snipers – against the federal government. The Washington legislature is right to recognize this as domestic terrorism.
The Bundy-led insurrections, far from being isolated incidents, are simply the best-publicized of many acts of bullying and intimidation perpetrated by public-lands ranchers. In Nevada, three separate bombings targeted BLM employees in Nevada at their homes and offices in 1993 and 1995. In Oregon, the Hammond family made “a thick file” of death threats against Malheur National Wildlife refuge managers in the 1980s and 1990s; the Hammonds later had their federal grazing privileges revoked. In Nevada, ranchers effectively laid siege to the BLM’s Battle Mountain office in 2014 and 2015 over livestock trespassing onto public lands closed to grazing. In Piute County, Utah, Sheriff Marty Gleave threatened to arrest Forest Service employees in 2016 if further cuts were made to the number of cattle his relative was permitted to graze on national forest lands. This kind of behavior is not uncommon in the realm of public lands ranching.
The Washington state legislature is showing other government agencies how it’s done in calling out domestic terrorism within their jurisdiction. Now it’s time for some leadership in Washington D.C.
Erik Molvar is Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project, and environmental conservation nonprofit dedicated to protecting and restoring watersheds and wildlife throughout the American West.
And see the latest Western Watersheds grazing lawsuit in Utah here: https://forestpolicypub.com/2019/12/30/nfs-litigation-weekly-december-20-2019/